Delaware General Assembly Pre-Game Show: Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Due diligence is essential during these last weeks of session, as bills fly through w/o, in many cases, much consideration either by the legislators or the public.

Other bills will be introduced as props for the upcoming campaign. Cassandra will have a particularly instructive one for you in another post today.

Lobbyists are swarming around the Hall, each with their own particular priorities, trying to buttonhole key legislators. Very little good can come of this. The Body Politic is likely to become infected with an undesirable illness that will go undetected until it gets a utility bill two years from now, finds some alarming charges on its bank statement, etc. That is why attention must be paid. So, pay attention.

First, a quick Thursday recap.  Lotsa bills introduced, including the Bradley package. More on these later in the process. Suffice it to say that one of the bills simply makes clear what was already clear: that the Board of Medical Practice, which will be getting an unwieldy new name, has had the obligation to investigate doctors who are suspected of wrongdoing, and has simply not carried out its public responsibilities. Rep. Atkins continued his campaign to turn public housing into armed camps, courtesy of the NRA and the Delaware Sportsmen’s Association. Legislation to do away with county row offices and to integrate their responsibilities into the state system were also introduced. The Willfully Ignorant would get a boost from two of Delaware’s most willfully ignorant legislators (Venables & Gerald Brady) with this piece o’ work. Like I said, attention must be paid.

A couple of legislative highlights from Thursday. RSmitty can go home (or to the tasting of his choice) for the rest of session, as spirit tastings were approved, and brew pub sales expanded. I was very pleased to see that HB 358(D. Short) passed unanimously in the House. Only Nancy Cook stands between it and enactment.

Some key bills highlight today’s Senate Agenda. Delaware may finally get that cellphone ban bill, as HS1/HB 229(Rep. Scott) is scheduled. Watch out for killer amendments. One has already been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Booth. SB 2 would make operating a hand-held device while driving a secondary offense, meaning police could not stop someone solely for this offense. The obvious question is why. The obvious answer is b/c Verizon wants it that way.

Senator McDowell’s Green Energy bills, SB 266 and SB 267, will also be considered. I expect close to unanimous support for them. Finally, HB 317(B. Short), which places limits on door-to-door salespersons, is also scheduled. The main problem with this bill is obvious–salespersons, proselytizers and politicos are all peddling the same thing–pure unadulterated bullshit, but only the salespersons are covered here. They may be the least offensive and misleading of the three. After all, whenever the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Mormons are making the rounds, you can bet that my neighbors and I  are all cowering in our houses, praying (well, that’s not the right word in my case, but…) they won’t knock at our door.

Some highlights on the House side include:

HB 41(Cathcart): Creates a list of minimum patient rights for community-based mental health centers. Pretty sure that this bill was an outgrowth of the investigation into the Delaware Psych Center, even though it deals with community facilities as opposed to institutional facilities.

HS1/HB348(Longhurst): An example of a wonderful-sounding bill that won’t do a bleeping thing. This bill purports to “provide greater protections for Delaware’s vulnerable adults, individuals the General Assembly considers to be particularly at risk of physical, emotional and/or financial exploitation. The Act creates a new criminal offense, Crime Against a Vulnerable Adult, which imposes enhanced penalties in more than 50 criminal offenses if the victim is a vulnerable adult.”

The bill does not afford greater protections. Delaware already has strong laws in this area, many of which are going unenforced or inadequately enforced. This bill simply adds more offenses that will go unenforced. It does, however, give police and prosecutors more leeway to pile on charges, even when not warranted. Except…the amendments that have been placed with the bill undo much of what the bill purports to do. It’ll look great on political brochures, however. Rep. Longhurst was born to peddle stuff like this.

HB 420(Scott): Perhaps Delaware’s best freshman legislator seeks to eliminate yet another sneaky underhanded insurance trick–post-claims underwriting by health insurers. What is post-claims underwriting, you ask?:

Post claims underwriting is a practice whereby an insurance company fails to properly complete underwriting prior to issuing a policy, and instead waits until a claim is filed to determine that the insured was originally ineligible for the policy and rescind the policy, notwithstanding the fact that the insured has, in some instances, been paying premiums on the policy for several months or years.

The only question is HOW the insurance industry will try to kill this one. Gonna be tough with both Insurance Chairs on the bill. One can only hope that this moves through unimpeded.

Two previously-discussed bills sponsored by Sen. Henry will also receive House consideration. SB 254 creates a fund utilizing already-collected fines from nursing facilities and uses the funds to “support community based residential efforts (in lieu of expensive and dehumanizing long-term care alternatives) while, at the same time, taking care of long term care needs with the Long Term Care Trust Fund.” SB 255 “This Bill removes the prohibition against persons convicted of any drug felony from receiving federal food benefit assistance.” I think these are two very good bills and, since Senate opposition was minimal, they are likely to pass in the House and head to the Governor.

Speaking of food benefit assistance, gotta take my daughter to the local food closet, where she’s volunteering this summer. A great cause worthy of your time and money. And ours, for that matter.